Julio Etchart
documentary photographer
visual journalist
imagining Orwell
in Three Continents
Many years, almost to the hour, before the date when I was born, one Eric Arthur Blair - better known as George Orwell - was nearly killed by a bullet from the Fascist lines, as he was fighting with the anarchist brigades on the Republican side on in 1937, during the second year of the Spanish Civil War. He survived the ordeal and the chaotic times that followed, and went on to write the seminal Homage to Catalonia, an account of his experiences of that brutal conflict. I followed his steps by documenting the original locations in Catalonia and Aragon. A decade earlier, Orwell spent five years in Burma as an Imperial policeman, which led him to write Burmese Days, and I trailed his story all the way to Katha, where he was posted. I also traced his path in Morocco, which he visited in 1939. Excerpts from his writings supporting my images has been published by Just Press. You may order the photo-book via my contact page.